This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-28760 filed on May 23, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted type microwave oven having a slide duct which slides back and forth to efficiently exhaust gas and odors of food generated from an oven range positioned below the wall-mounted type microwave oven.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 installed over an oven range 2. Generally, the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is installed over the oven range 2 and exhausts gas, fumes and odors of food generated from the oven range 2 to the outside. The wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 also serves as a cooking apparatus which cooks food therein using high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
The oven range 2 is provided at its top with a plurality of top burners 3 to cook food, for example, by combustion of gas. The wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 is adapted to cook food in a cooking chamber (not shown) by an intermolecular frictional heat which is generated by repeatedly agitating water molecules of the food with high-frequency electromagnetic wave energy generated from a magnetron (not shown).
FIG. 2 schematically shows an internal configuration of the conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1. The wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 includes an exhaust path 13 to exhaust gas and odors generated from food to the outside, and a cooking chamber 11 and an electrical component compartment 12 which are isolated from each other in an oven body 10.
The cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12 are provided at their bottoms, sides and tops with the exhaust path 13 to exhaust the gas and fumes generated from the oven range 2 (see FIG. 1) disposed below the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1. The oven body 10 is provided at an upper portion of its back with an exhaust fan 14 which sucks in the gas and fumes introduced into the exhaust path 13 and discharges them to the outside. The exhaust path 13 constitutes a flow path isolated from the cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12.
The electrical component compartment 12 includes a cooling fan 15 which cools electrical components disposed in the electrical component compartment 12. The electrical component compartment 12 is further provided at an upper portion of its front face with a front air inlet 16, which allows outside air to be introduced into the electrical component compartment 12 therethrough by operation of the cooling fan 15. A partition plate 17 which is located between the cooking chamber 11 and the electrical component compartment 12 is formed with a plurality of vent holes 18, so as to introduce air sucked into the electrical component compartment 12 into the cooking chamber 11 therethrough to ventilate the cooking chamber 11. The cooking chamber 11 is formed with a plurality of vent holes 19 at its upper surface and on the side opposite to the partition plate 17 to allow the air in the cooking chamber 11 to be discharged to the outside therethrough. The cooking chamber 11 is also provided with a front air outlet 20 which allows the air passing through the vent holes 19 to be discharged to the outside therethrough.
However, the conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 cannot efficiently suck in the exhaust gas, fumes and odors generated from the oven range 2 disposed below the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, top burners 3 of the oven range 2 are arranged in two rows, i.e., a front row of top burners 3a and a rear row of top burners 3b. Yet, the conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven 1, which is disposed over the oven range 2, is sized to cover only the rear row of top burners 3b. Accordingly, the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 cannot efficiently suck in the exhaust gas, fumes and odors generated from the front row of top burners 3a using the exhaust fan 14 of FIG. 2. Hence, the exhaust gas, fumes and odors generated from the front row of top burners 3a cannot be sufficiently discharged to the outside, thereby causing room air to be contaminated.
If a suction force of the exhaust fan 14 is increased to solve the above problem, an internal configuration of the wall-mounted type microwave oven 1 must be modified due to the enlargement of the exhaust fan 14, and noise generated during rotation of the exhaust fan 14 is also undesirably intensified.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted type microwave oven which is capable of efficiently sucking in and discharging exhaust gas and odors of food generated from an oven range disposed below the wall-mounted type microwave oven.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a wall-mounted type microwave oven comprising an oven body which defines an exterior appearance of the microwave oven, an intake port which is provided at a bottom panel of the oven body and allows exhaust gas to be introduced into the oven body therethrough, a main exhaust fan internally provided at an upper portion of the oven body, a main exhaust path which communicates with the intake port and the main exhaust fan, and a slide duct which is provided under the oven body, and retractably extends forward to guide the exhaust gas generated from an area positioned below the oven body.
The slide duct may comprise a lower plate, side plates which are upwardly extended from corresponding sides of the lower plate, and a front plate which is upwardly extended from a front end of the lower plate so as to define an auxiliary exhaust path, which guides the exhaust gas toward the main exhaust path, between the bottom panel of the oven body and the lower plate of the slide duct.
The slide duct may be further provided with an upper plate connected to upper ends of the side plates and the front plate, and the upper and lower plates may include a through port which communicates with the intake port of the bottom panel of the oven body where the slide duct is retracted into the oven body.
The slide duct may further include an auxiliary exhaust fan which is provided at an internal front portion of the slide duct, and sucks in the exhaust gas generated from a region below the slide duct where the slide duct is extended forward, and guide plates which accommodate the auxiliary exhaust fan and extend toward the oven body to guide the exhaust gas introduced by the auxiliary exhaust fan toward the main exhaust path of the oven body.
The side plates of the slide duct may include corresponding rails which extend longitudinally along the side plates, and the oven body may include side panels having corresponding slide grooves, along which the rails of the slide duct are slidably moved back and forth.